I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones yesterday. I hope Santa was good to you and you found lots of bookish goodness under the tree! We flew home from Arizona (yuck, I know…dealing with an airport on Christmas Day?!?!) and now my brother and nephew are visiting from Los Angeles.
It’s been busy, busy, busy this holiday season and I miss being able to curl up by a warm fire with a good book! Things will slow down around this time next week though…and I am already gearing up to make that vision my reality!
In case you missed them, here are some links to my recent posts:
- Dear Santa…5 Books I Hope to See Under the Tree!
- Top 5 Books I Didn’t Get to in 2019!
- My Week in Books {12/4/19}
- Top 5 Surprising Reads of 2019!
What have you been reading (and loving) this week?
Last Week’s Reads:
📖 The Stationery Shop by: Marjan Kamali (Gallery) Pub Date: June 18, 2019
This was a beautiful story that quite literally came full circle. Roya and Bahman met in Iran when they were only seventeen years old. They quickly fell in love and had plans of marrying, but a political coup in the area changed their plans. Instead, they lost touch when Roya moved to the United States with her sister to attend collge. There she met her husband, Walter, and lived a happy enough life. But Bahman was never far from her mind and when a chance encounter with his son brings them back together, the real story behind that fateful day is revealed.
I loved the simplistic nature of this deep and layered story. Kamali weaves a beautiful and lyrical story that completely captured me and took me by surprise. I’ve seen a lot of people that have named this book in their Top 10 Books of 2019 and it totally deserves that recognition. The characters were nuanced, as were their stories. It did feel a little slow in the beginning and quickly picked up speed as it neared the finish; I would have preferred a more even pace. Ultimately though, this was the perfect read with all the hustle and bustle of the current season.
Currently Reading:
📖 Me by: Elton John (Henry Holt ) – Pub Date: October 15, 2019
Just starting this one but how could it be anything but good?
📱 The Song of Achilles by: Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) – Pub Date: September 20, 2011
I’ve been waiting for this library hold to come in FOREVER, so I will be diving in shortly. I’ve read the first chapter just to get a feel for the story and I think it’s going to be a winner. If it’s anything like Circe, I’m in for a treat!
DNF (aka: Not For Me and/or Skipping For Now):
*** 📖 Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America by: Nefertiti Austin (Sourcebooks) – Pub Date: September 20, 2019
The part of the book I read was interesting, but I’m just not motivated to pick it up and read it anymore. I’m 33% in and she still hasn’t adopted her son and I’m just kind of over it. It feels more like an agenda than it does an adoption story at this point.
*** 🎧 Ordinary Girls by: Jaquira Díaz (Algonquin) – Pub Date: October 29, 2019
Skipping for now…I really liked it and I am interested in picking it up again, but with the holidays, the audiobook was too hard to follow.
Happiest When Reading 
I’ve not yet gotten to Circe or Song of Achilles, but I went to a talk by the author that, combined with all the hype, definitely made me excited for them. I’ll be interested to hear what you think about Song of Achilles!
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